When we strive to develop a virtue by disciplining ourselves, we may succumb to deception at three levels.
Intention to deceive others: We may seek to deceive others because we want to appear better than what we actually are. Suppose we study the Bhagavad-gita because we want to appear learned. Such obsession with appearance may divert us from the substance of the Gita — instead of applying ourselves to comprehending its profound message, we may reduce our Gita study to a search for catchy, clever-sounding sound bites associated with the Gita.
Success in deceiving others: When others believe our facade, we are confronted with two options: back that appearance with substance or touch up the appearance. Given that the first requires significant effort, we may choose the easier second path. Continuing the Gita study example, we may become obsessed with finding awesome Gita-related soundbites while neglecting the Gita’s core message.
Success in deceiving ourselves: When we start believing our lies, then reality becomes our enemy — if reality surfaces, our deception, which we have accepted as the truth, crumbles. Therefore, destroying reality becomes our survival necessity. In that doomed pursuit to eradicate reality, we may waste our life and even cause great distress to ourselves as well as others. Continuing the Gita study example, if we believe that our impressive sound bites make us a Gita scholar, we may start seeing real Gita scholars as threats; if they speak the substance, our shallowness will be exposed. To protect ourselves, we may seek to spoil or even ruin their reputation. Thus, we may end up self-righteously locking ourselves in the lost cause of defending our self-deception. Such is the terrible plight of those who deceive themselves (Bhagavad-gita 03.06).
One-sentence summary:
The intention to deceive others is bad; success in deceiving others is worse; success in deceiving ourselves is the worst.
Think it over:
- Why is the intention to deceive others bad?
- Why is success in deceiving others worse?
- Why is success in deceiving ourselves the worst?
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03.06: One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.
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